It is well known in the art to use elongated containers to process any type of organic waste material such as sewage sludge, animal excrements, leachate and the like into usable humus fertilizer, compost or the like material depending on the material and the specific needs.
Some of these prior art apparatuses and methods are disclosed in the following documents:                U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,074, issued Jul. 11, 1972, to Daigoro Shibayama et al. for “Apparatus for treating organic waste”;        U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,810, issued Sep. 24, 1974, to Richards et al. for “Composter”;        U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,939, issued Nov. 5, 1974, to Waldenville for “Composting apparatus”;        U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,494, issued Feb. 7, 1978, to Gujer for “Method and device for the wet composting of organic sludge”;        U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,959 issued May 27, 1980, to Kreuzburg et al. for “Apparatus for the treatment and composting of biological waste”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,635, issued Jan. 7, 1997, to Young et al. for “Methods and apparatuses for rapid composting with closed air loop circulation for positive control”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,768, issued Jul. 7, 1998, to Seymour et al. for “Cold weather composting apparatus”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,979, issued Mar. 2, 1999, to Walters et al. for “Green waste processor”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,664, issued Apr. 6, 1999, to Conant, III for “Transportable, self-contained, fully automated composter”; and        U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,270, issued Nov. 9, 1999, to Roberts et al. for “Bio-catalytic oxidation reactor”.        
In order to increase the process speed, many apparatuses circulate and mix air into the waste material while either the outer shell or an inner agitator-like component rotates to enable the mixing and the homogenization process of the waste material therein.
Some other apparatuses include a rather complex control system of air circulating within the compost chamber to control the air temperature, humidity, pressure, oxygen level, carbon dioxide level, etc., so as to improve the processing of the waste material and maintain a proper temperature thereof.
In some prior art apparatuses, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,676,074; 3,837,810 & 5,591,635, the air inlets are located at the bottom of the container or within the amount of waste material to mix directly the air into the slurry of waste material. In other prior art apparatuses, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,676,074 & 5,981,270, the air inlets are located at the upper part of the container where the air volume mixes with the waste material at the interface there between; the upper surface of the waste material continuously changing with the tumbling due to the rotation of the container.
Another drawback of the prior art apparatuses is that they do not ensure that all of the waste material gets regularly properly mixed with air to better homogenize the waste material for an efficient processing, especially during a continuous processing as opposed to a batch processing.
Furthermore, in some prior apparatuses, the internal agitator dips into the waste material, thereby requiring a significant amount of power to ensure its rotation.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved composter with a simple configuration.